Friending

THE BEST TIME for friendship is high school, when people are not yet old enough and wise enough to despise people and to prefer solitude, friendships are formed easily and quickly, and we gather together in cliques, avoiding adults.  After that, marriage, relocations, and divergent interests sunder old friendships which are replaced by new ones, most of which, like most friendships, are temporary, with limited lifespans. One of my best college friends got married, and became ardently involved in civil War reenactments. For him they became a way of life, with the uniforms, and battle gatherings. For me, the civil War, reading about it was nightmare enough without pretending to be fighting it. Another friend never married, at least not for long, but he moved away to go to college and never came back. He became extremely interested in alternative cosmic paradigms, what is called paranormal research, while I chose to remain comfortably ensconced in the relam of traditional, empirical science. The he sealed our friendship's fate by becoming a Trump supporter; straining my tolerance past the breaking point. we all have our requirements and limitations. I consider Trump supporters to be morally and intellectually compromised, no matter whether they are good people or not. then there was my friend from high school who late in life lost his interest in baseball. Since baseball is my religion, he and I parted ways, even though I could understand his frustration at a sport in which money came to take precedence over the actual game itself. I've been to all six high school reunions, but maybe my last. I have doubts as to whether i will attend number fifty. the organizing committee is dominated by a small group of Trump supporters who believe, or seem to believe that the president was appointed by christ, sometimes I wonder whether they can tell the difference between the two. That's almost as crazy as saying that the class of seventy three is the special favorite of Alice Cooper and Three Dog Night, which, come to think of it, is a totally cool thought.